Replacing Sabyasachi in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s film, Anju Modi’s show by some (read me) was something I wanted to see. Seeing her earlier works, Anju Modi comes across as a traditionalist yet with her contemporary quirks. Its a pity whatever one see of this designer on celebrities, which is usually the bling, one tends to associate it with the designer. Modi however proved she is far from that. The replacement however showed she had potential but hasn’t fallen far from who she replaced.

The collection was a heavy dose of creative patriotism. Titled ‘Steel Mangolia’, the collection was inspired by Indian Military and feminity. Though she did show a few menswear too including a fun elephant printed sherwani, her main focus was womenswear complete with accessories like caps, emblems and the ubiquitous aviator glasses. Though the collection at some occassions did feel like Yousuf Bashir Qureshi’s collection combined with one of Sabyasachi’s earlier shows, Anju Modi did seem to show her own voice as a designer as well.

Bringing on her detailings in the form of embroidery, Modi created embelms and badges over pashmina, chanderi, cotton and Banarsi to show feminity and power in the same breath. Apart from that Modi used a lot of wool and silk too to complete the modern day soldier look, defying gender bias. The color palette comprised of a smooth coexistence of dark maroons, indigos and foliage green to light greys, beiges and ochre tones.

The long jacket-style kurtas with detailing on the lapels and worn over full skirts, structured short jackets over flared woollen pants, the berets and Nehru topis reflected the ethos of the collection. A few looks that were my picks from the collection included an elegant navy pleated embroidered khadi trenchcoat with printed khadi wide legs, a white on white look with a white long jacket paired over a white printed saree. The list also includes a foliage green check wool short jacket teamed with a printed shirt and woolen wide leg pants. From the menswear, a woolen sherwani-esque jacket in fierce maroon stripes paired with green khakis as well as a green check jacket paired with a plain shirt and grey slim trousers were my picks. A special mention to those corset blouses with boleros.

Her effort to give the structured military trend a fresh outlook for pret was commendable since she did it without moving away from feminine clientele and bring sexy to the androgynous.